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Goal: 3. 5cm+/-2mm on femur. I plan to have my tibia surgery done sometime end of this year. As a patient lengthening both regions, I was very picky about my proportions (femur:tibia, inseam:height, wingspan:height). I wanted to be tall, but I also wanted to look natural. After measuring a bunch of things using x-rays and comparing the numbers to his database, Dr. Donghoon Lee recommended a total of 8cm: 3. 5cm on femur, 4. 5 on tibia. He told me that there were patients (LL both femur and tibia) who went further than what he had recommended and still came out looking great. But He also implied that there were others who didn't. I decided that even a small chance of that happening was too big a chance for me.

Hospital Facility: Rooms - singles, doubles, and ones with 7 people (and females only triples). Bathrooms - 2 wheelchair-accessible bathrooms + many regular ones. Good AC, cute nurses, deli on 1st fl. Hospital Food-korean (rice, soup, 1main, 3 side dishes - fresh and healthy but doesn't taste good. after all you can't make delicious korean food without ODing on salts and spices). You can ask for sandwich (ehhhh. . . ) or more expensive stuff (I tried, it's just more of the crappy stuff, get used to it). Dr. Donghoon Lee stops by once a day. His residents are usually around the same floor if you have any questions.

6/3/13 - I arrived at the hospital around 4pm. As soon as I got there, I found two patients who had PRECICE method done recently. They told me that the surgery was almost painless and I had nothing to worry about. I filled out some forms and went to bed around 2am.

6/4/13 - Around 7am in the morning, a bunch of nurses and doctors woke me up. Half nervous and half asleep, I got transferred to an operating room on a gurney. I put on an O2 mask for the first time in my life and was quickly knocked out. Fast-forward about 5~6 hours -- I woke up in the recovery room shivering. After taking an x-ray, I was transferred back to my room. But unlike the other PRECICE patients I had talked to yesterday, I was in a lot of pain and had to ask for extra pain meds for the next 2~3 days (it's hard to objectify pain but I really wasn't being a baby)

0-1cm - After about a week of recovery period I started lengthening with four other PRECICE patients. The pain was still there, but I got better with each day. And by the end of 1cm, I was nearly pain-free. However, every time I went to sleep, I woke up because I kept getting cramps in the legs. When this happened, I asked for pain meds, which helped me go back to sleep (benefits of sleep greatly outweighs a few side-effects of pain meds). There is a required 30 min PT everyday Mon-Fri, and the gym is available to all patients from 9am to 5pm. The PT is great; 90% of his patients had LL done by Dr. Donghoon Lee, and he's been working with LL patients for as long as the doctor. I spent 1~2 hours in the gym and the rest of the day in my room watching TV and reading books.

1-3cm - This was probably the easiest period from what I remember. The pain from the surgery was completely gone and the pain from muscle contracture wasn't all that bad. But PT was getting tougher as my muscles were getting stiffer. I spent most of my days in the gym (9am-4pm). I wasn't exercising all the time, but that's where other PRECICE patients spent most of their days too. We just lied down on a giant physio bed and talked. After dinner, we talked some more and went to bed around 11pm. Sleeping was the worst part of the day, because even though I stretched all day, I kept getting cramps every night.

3cm-discharge - Still mostly pain free. But once in a while, I would get sharp pain on my knee. This went on for about 3days and then disappeared. PT sessions started to really hurt, but 30mins of hell and I was pain free for the rest of the day. Once I was done lengthening, I asked my doctor that I take x-rays more frequently to minimize human error. I sat next to my doctor and watch him measure the lengthened distance on 3 different x-rays:3. 3cm, 3. 7cm;3. 4cm, 3. 8cm;and 3. 4cm, 3. 8cm (the goal was 3. 5cm+/-2mm, ended up doing 3. 6cm+/-2mm, which was close enough, but PRECICE does have a retrograde option). I was pretty happy with the results. I stayed in the hospital for 3 more weeks for extra PT sessions while waiting for my bones to consolidate. When Dr. Donghoon Lee told me that my right leg was ready to bear full weight, I went home with a walker.

At home - I regained about 80% of my flexibility back and I feel pretty normal (?) except for the can't-walk thingy. Believe it or not, I miss the hospital. It was much less boring than staying home and watching TV. I lost about 7kg and now I'm trying to gain back my muscle before I start my tibia. Overall, the experience was great. I will be going back to Dr. Donghoon Lee to lengthen my tibia soon (before 2013 ends). He usually recommends his patients wait 6months to a year before they get another LL procedure done. However, he did have patients who received LL surgeries back to back (ex. lengthen tibia via External Fixation with LON, and then remove the externals and implant ISKD on femur under one anesthetics). I am not doing that, because one, it's physically and psychologically tiring, two I am waiting for a new PRECICE system with 8. 5mm diameter. Currently, the PRECICE with the smallest diameter is 10. 7mm, and the intramedullary space of my tibia is too narrow for it (actually somewhat common among asians). He posted (not mmt site) that he expects this new device to be released in Korea by the end of this year. Hopefully, I can get this thing finished by mid 2014 and go back to the States.

I hope this helps. I tried to be as thorough as I can be, but if you have any questions, let me know.

WOW so here it is folks ..... first precise diary for Dr. Donghoon Lee this should be very very interesting. im sure alot of people have been waiting for this. good luck with your journey wish you all the best !!

Hello Junkim. As other people have mentioned many of us are very excited to read about a PRECICE patient with Dr. Donghoon. Can you please take pictures or videos of your scars and post them and if you can post some videos of you walking or doing rehab exercises that would be great. Thanks for sharing your experience and keep us posted on your recovery!

Goal: 3. 5cm+/-2mm on femur. I plan to have my tibia surgery done sometime end of this year. As a patient lengthening both regions, I was very picky about my proportions (femur:tibia, inseam:height, wingspan:height). I wanted to be tall, but I also wanted to look natural. After measuring a bunch of things using x-rays and comparing the numbers to his database, Dr. Donghoon Lee recommended a total of 8cm: 3. 5cm on femur, 4. 5 on tibia. He told me that there were patients (LL both femur and tibia) who went further than what he had recommended and still came out looking great. But He also implied that there were others who didn't. I decided that even a small chance of that happening was too big a chance for me.

If you will, could you please elaborate a little more about your proportions and how Dr. Donghoon calculated your optimum lengthening ?

Also, do you speak Korean ? If not, how is the language barrier, is it possible to hang out with other patients, talk to doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, watch TV, order food from outside in English ?

If a patient is not Korean, he can only stay up to 90 days in South Korea. Did you have to get a visa extension or any other patients you knew ? How does it work ?

Have you seen any LATN or LON patients ? How was their lengthening/recovery ? Do their frames allow them to walk with crutches while lengthening ? Are you considering LATN or LON with Dr. Donghoon if the new precise is not available, since the "old" precise is not weight-bearing ?

About costs, could you give us a price breakdown of what it will cost to have LL with Dr. Donghoon ? There are some conflicting informations in other threads.

If you don't mind, please upload some pictures of your x-rays, hospital, PT, food, or whatever you got.

Thanks for the info JK. Would the Dr allow patients to return home after about 4 weeks (like Dr Betz does) to continue lengthenning?

How much would he charge for the surgery alone and 1 month stay?

Yes, I'm not sure what the minimum number of days you have to stay in the hospital, but you can rent the ERC and do the lengthening at home. Staying in the hospital is not that expensive. If you stay in the room with 7 people, a day would cost you about 100,000won=90dollars, which means that even if you decide to stay for only 1 month instead of 2, you won't save that much.

Quote from: vaio link=topic=6410. msg85445#msg85445 date=1377431549

what is your age?what is your height?also korea hospital have the western style foods? because i cant eat asia foods.

i'm 25 years old. You can ask for it (I've seen sandwich and meatball spaghetti), but they look pretty bad. They do have DD and deli on 1st fl tho lol. You can also have pizza/wings delivered from local places. We've done it a few times and they r good, but I don't think you wanna do that everyday.

Quote from: usnom link=topic=6410. msg85458#msg85458 date=1377439261

Just like those recovery videos if Dr Donghoon, I am a bit skeptical if a representive of the Dr wrote this or a actual patient.

You have to make a more concise diary with some pics and video of you lengthening with the erc device to be more convincing.

I am an actual patient. A lot of people are asking for pics and videos, I will post them soon (I just didin't bother to take any photos in the hospital), but I'm not here to convince anyone.

If you will, could you please elaborate a little more about your proportions and how Dr. Donghoon calculated your optimum lengthening ?

Also, do you speak Korean ? If not, how is the language barrier, is it possible to hang out with other patients, talk to doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, watch TV, order food from outside in English ?

If a patient is not Korean, he can only stay up to 90 days in South Korea. Did you have to get a visa extension or any other patients you knew ? How does it work ?

Have you seen any LATN or LON patients ? How was their lengthening/recovery ? Do their frames allow them to walk with crutches while lengthening ? Are you considering LATN or LON with Dr. Donghoon if the new precise is not available, since the "old" precise is not weight-bearing ?

About costs, could you give us a price breakdown of what it will cost to have LL with Dr. Donghoon ? There are some conflicting informations in other threads.

If you don't mind, please upload some pictures of your x-rays, hospital, PT, food, or whatever you got.

Thanks again for sharing,

No Spoon

He measured the lengths of my inseam, femur, and tibia using xray. Your inseam shouldn't exceed 50% of your height for men (well, it can, but he said only about one in 100 people have such proportions). I had a slightly longer femur and having longer tibia looks prettier. My wingspan was 3cm longer my initial height, but he said that the arm length is very hard to notice unless you lengthen over 10cm. Having short arms is not an attractive trait, but I just have to make the best out of what I have. I speak fluent Korean. I'm sure the doctors can speak Korean, not so sure about the nurses. I had one PRECICE friend who spoke English, but that's because she lived in Chicago for a year. I have an alien registration card. I have neither Korean citizenship nor a job here, so I'm sure you can do the same thing. I met a lot of LON and LATN patients, but they do their lengthening at home. So either they just had the surgery done or they were there to remove the externals. They can bearly walk with a walker, but they seem to prefer the wheelchair. Recovery rate seems to vary among patients. Some had no ballerina feet, while others had them pretty bad (they also told me that they played video games all day lol). I will be using LATN to lengthen my tibia, if the new PRECICE doesn't come out. Weight-bearing is not why I'm waiting for the new PRECICE. The "old" PRECICE is too big and won't fit in the intramedullary space of my tibia. Hospital pictures and xrays are going to have to wait (I'm home and I didn't take any pictures in the hospital). But I will be going to the hospital this Thursday for an xray checkup. Also, can you please link me to the "other threads" with conflicting info?

I didn't mean to imply anything bad at all by talking about conflicting info regarding the costs. I'm sorry if it came out wrong. I just wanted to know for sure. I didn't know about the possibility of sharing a room. 90 dollars a day for a hospital in a developed country is far from expensive.

Anyway, here are the posts I found that mentioned LL costs with Dr. Donghoon:

Have the prices changed? Are they now possibly lower? I also asked Dr. Donghoon the following questions in my email and he gave me the these answers.

1. Can I lengthen at home?Answer- Only local patients or patients who have family in Korea have the option to lengthen at home. International patients stay in the hospital during their lengthening.

2. Do you offer anything less expensive than the 2 person shared room?Answer- We have the option of a 7 person shared room but those are only available to local patients or overseas patients who speak Korean. For international patients the 2 person shared room is the least expensive we have.

Have these policies changed? You said you stayed in the 7 person shared room and you are going back to the United States after your tibia surgery. So are you Korean or do you speak Korean so you were allowed to stay in the less expensive 7 person shared room?

I look forward to your answers and please keep us posted on your recovery and any new information about when the new PRECICE 2 will be available.

Thanks for the info! After you check out the links from No Spoon can you please answer some questions?

Have these policies changed? You said you stayed in the 7 person shared room and you are going back to the United States after your tibia surgery. So are you Korean or do you speak Korean so you were allowed to stay in the less expensive 7 person shared room?

I look forward to your answers and please keep us posted on your recovery and any new information about when the new PRECICE 2 will be available.

I do have family in Korea, in Anyang, very close to seoul so Doctor would let me go home with ERC likelyHowever I cant afford it. I also speak fluently so I've seen the 8 room thing in Korean drama, and I do not wishto stay with so many other ppl even it's uncommon that anyone will bother u. I'd choose family.

There is a difference in prices if u are fluent, or international only, or have family in Korea who will take care of uwhen u have the device in the leg.

So as he mentioned, the cheapest prices are there for those who can speak Korean so they can stay in the 8 patient room. To call the nurse, ask for things when u need, etcI don't think my aunt's family in Korea would provide me free meals/food/board room and care for that many months.

However, I think my aunt's family would not charge me any more than $50 / day instead of the $90 at the hospital.

It's gratifying for those who speak Korean so they can have cheaper prices. But as the patient mentioned,being $90 / day or so, it wont save u that much. I have no idea what the 1-room or 2-room would cost.Maybe $150 or more?

Ordering food over the phone is easy if you can speak Korean. None of my cousins who came to the USto visit me could speak English even a little well at all.

The delivery there is no tip, no taxes no delivery fees. Yes, since both my parents are full korean,I am korean even though I wasn't born in Korea. But also cool thing is that I live 45mins from Dr M,and in Korea I would have a decent support system if I would choose either aunt's family or just 8-bedroom.

I am happy and upbeat and chipper that they got those hospitals, now though there are hospitalsthat still do Ilizarov, they would not accept me because I told them the truth I am 168cm male.They rejected me over the phone I was calling from cali to korea 7-8 years ago.

It is nice to hear from Doctor Hoon that up to 10cm over wingspan is very hard to notice.So this forum is very accurate on some stuff.

1. Can I lengthen at home?Answer- Only local patients or patients who have family in Korea have the option to lengthen at home. International patients stay in the hospital during their lengthening.

2. Do you offer anything less expensive than the 2 person shared room?Answer- We have the option of a 7 person shared room but those are only available to local patients or overseas patients who speak Korean. For international patients the 2 person shared room is the least expensive we have.

Have these policies changed? You said you stayed in the 7 person shared room and you are going back to the United States after your tibia surgery. So are you Korean or do you speak Korean so you were allowed to stay in the less expensive 7 person shared room?

I look forward to your answers and please keep us posted on your recovery and any new information about when the new PRECICE 2 will be available.

At atleast $200/day to stay in hospital, it works out to be US$18,000 over 90 days.

Would the Dr allow patients to return home after about 4 weeks (like Dr Betz does) to continue lengthenning?

How much would he charge for the surgery alone and 1 month stay?

I've inquired Dr. Donghoon the same question, but under the condition that another physician is qualified (For i.e. Dr. M or Dr. Paley) to oversee the rest of the lengthening when coming back home. Dr. Donghoon's response was

"Basically, I do not recommend the way you suggested. As much as the surgery itself is important, we cannot neglect the importance of checking lengthening speed of each patient's as well as physical training. However, if the doctor near your home agrees on this condition, I would consider your suggestion positively.

Cheers! Donghoon"

Though not advisable from a medical profession stand point, but it is possible.

I don't know why there is a price discrepency. The links only mention singles and doubles, which are much more expensive than the room with 7 people in it. I don't understand why 7 people room would only be available to the Korean patients. There can't possibly be a sound justification for it. I am Korean and speak Korean fluently, but I don't have Korean citizenship, which would technically make me a foreign patient (maybe the hospital assumed that I have Korean citizenship lol). Also, I didn't stay for the full 90days. Prices haven't gone down since the 1st PRECICE surgery (if anything it went up a bit). But none of this accounts for the huge price discrepeny. I only know how much I paid, and you should probably assume that the prices on the chart are correct.

By the way, thanks for the information and reposnding to all our questions.

Heres one way to measure ur inseam w/o using xray. Stick a book between ur thighs, and put it up as high as you can. Then walk to a wall so that the edge of the book touches the wall flat. now measure the distance from the floor to the upper end of the book (crotch). My speculation is that ur total height - sitting height > inseam. B/c ur total height=sitting height + inseam + @. The right side of the equation is missing the distance between ur crotch and hip bone. The difference is probably not that big, probably a few cm. But those few cm matters to us LL patients lol.

Hey guys, I went to the hospital yesterday and my doc said I can start walking. But I couldn't exactly walk straight because I lost a lot of muscle from the LL process. Anyways, here are some photos and a video. enjoy and have a good wkend :D

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